24 Laghman girls enrolled to nursing education

KABUL (PAN): Twenty-four girls from remote districts in eastern Laghman province have been enrolled to a newly-inaugurated school for community health nursing education, the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) said on Saturday.

The girls have started their 24-month course to become community health nurses at the school opened on Thursday in Mehtarlam, a SCA statement said.

Swedish Agency for International Development (SIDA)-funded programme is a joint venture of the committee and the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, it said

The community health nursing education was introduced in the health system of the Ministry of Public Health in 2011 in order to address Afghanistan’s lack of nurses as well as the overall shortage of female health workers, particularly in rural areas.

The programme is similar to community midwifery-training programme, which has played a vital role in increasing reproductive health services in the country, the statement said.

Upon graduation, the nurses would be employed to health facilities close or near to their home towns.